A billionaire Healthcare CEO spent copious amounts of money to win the GOP primary for Georgia Governor and Georgia Republicans bought it.
Georgia Republicans handed Rick Jackson the Republican nomination for governor with about 52% of the vote in the primary runoff tonight.
Jackson, who entered the race late and spent heavily on the campaign, defeated Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones to claim the GOP nomination. He will face former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in the November general election.
A race defined by money and mudslinging
The Republican primary was one of the most expensive and combative in recent Georgia history. Jackson and Jones spent months trading attacks on the airwaves, with each campaign accusing the other of corruption and self-dealing.
Jones questioned Jackson’s more than one billion dollars in state contracts since 2020 and donations Jackson made to Democratic figures including Stacey Abrams and Liz Cheney. Jackson’s campaign, meanwhile, painted Jones as a product of political privilege, with supporters calling him a “nepo baby” who was “born with a silver spoon.”
Jackson’s pitch: outsider with a hard-luck story
Jackson leaned heavily on his personal story throughout the campaign, describing a childhood marked by instability, including seven stepfathers, a mother who struggled with alcoholism and time spent in five different foster families across 13 schools.
“Neither one of us was born into the political class, neither one of us was handed a life of power or connections,” Jackson said at a campaign rally alongside U.S. Senator Rick Scott of Florida. “We both know what it feels like to be counted out.”
Jackson’s supporters consistently described him as a self-made man and argued his outsider status made him the strongest candidate for November.
Kemp and Trump endorsements didn’t help
The runoff put two of the Republican Party’s most prominent figures on the same side. Governor Brian Kemp, who is term-limited, endorsed Jones, arguing he was the candidate best positioned to defeat Bottoms in November.
President Donald Trump backed Jones as well, having promoted him in a series of tele-rallies since August.
Despite the backing of both Kemp and Trump, Jones fell short.
What comes next
Jackson now turns his attention to the November general election against Bottoms, who secured the Democratic nomination in the May primary with more than 56% of the vote.
Democrats enter the fall with some momentum. In the May primary, Democratic turnout was up by about half compared to the 2022 primary, while Republican turnout fell by about a quarter. However, early voting for Tuesday’s runoff showed Republicans outvoting Democrats by a 2-to-1 margin, driven largely by the competitive top-of-ticket GOP races.
There are a ton of voters who pay as much attention to the campaign itself as my six-year-old pays to his napkin at dinner. It just doesn’t come to mind.
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B.T. Clark is an award-winning journalist and the Publisher of The Georgia Sun. He has 25 years of experience in journalism and served as Managing Editor of Neighbor Newspapers in metro Atlanta for 15 years and Digital Director at Times-Journal Inc. for 8 years. His work has appeared in several newspapers throughout the state including Neighbor Newspapers, The Cherokee Tribune and The Marietta Daily Journal. He is a Georgia native and a fifth-generation Georgian.
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